2014-12-18

2014-07-15

Howard Dembovsky

National Charperson, Justice Project South Africa

A tireless fighter for fair & equitable law enforcement - particularly in the field of traffic law enforcement. Howard has been particularly vocal in the arenas of the application (or misapplication) of the AARTO Act as well as on corruption and power abuse that has become the "trademark" of traffic law enforcers.

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media exposure

Johannesburg - The government must stop giving mixed messages and being "pig-headed" about the e-tolls in Gauteng, the Justice Project SA said on Sunday.

"If e-tolling is to be scrapped as a means of financing road upgrades in other phases of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) and elsewhere, then why are Sanral and government being so pig-headed about retaining it for phase one?" asked JPSA chairperson Howard Dembovsky in a statement.

ohannesburg - Prosecutors have been appointed to work with the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) to deal with non-payment of e-tolls, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Tuesday.

"We have assigned two prosecutors to work with Sanral with the view to establish whether the activities by some motorists constitute an offence in terms of the Sanral Act," NPA spokesperson Nathi Mncube said.

Announcements by the National Department of Transport that a permanent CEO for the RTMC will be made shortly were welcomed by JPSA. The RTMC has been operating without a board and only an acting CEO for almost 2 years now and under his tenure, there has been no improvement in the operations of the RTMC.

After Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele announced that it was being considered to lower the speed limit applicable to national freeways from 120km/h to 100km/h, Howard Dembovsky came forward stating that speed in itself was rarely the cause of crashes. He pointed out that speed does have an influence on the severity of crashes however.

He also pointed out that speed limits applicable to public transport vehicles are already 100km/h and heavy vehicles 80km/h and these limits are very rearely enforced.

Deputy Chief of the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) Ndumiso Jaca has been using counterfiet number plates "BALTY GP" on two distinctly different motor vehicles for some time now. The one is a BMW Z4 motor car and the other is a Harley Davdison motorcycle. At the time of going to press, the BMW was not even roadworthied, registered or licensed.

Criminal charges, including violation of the National Road Traffic Act and fraud have been laid against Jaca by Howard Dembovsky and the ICD is dealing with the matter.

The JMPD is and has been since 1 June 2010, violating Section 30(1) of the AARTO Amendment Act which holds that infringement notices posted to alleged infringers MUST be sent by registered mail. The JMPD uses ordinary mail, which not only stalls the AARTO process before it can begin, but also invalidates each and every infringement notice issued in this manner.